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“Now I’ve got something with his scent on it—it’ll be easier to ask other wolves if they recognize this particular Raeth.”
They had to get in and out without being detected, and this needed to be quick. Sliding behind the desk, Remmus quickly sent a pulse into the technology that idled on the surface. Meanwhile, Ava stood by the door, listening intently for the sound of anyone approaching.
Since he’d been inside the office now, he could teleport back here at any time. It would prove beneficial if things went sideways and they needed to leave in a hurry.
Remmus was already pilfering through the computer’s data. As a wave of encrypted data crashed against him, he began to pull on threads that would prove useful. Though a programmer could read and write code, he had an inborn understanding of the digital language, far deeper than anything a human would ever possess. The entire operation, everything they’d documented, sprawled out before his mind with infinite ease.
“Their ammunitions, liquid sunlight, silver nitrate—all of it runs through this facility, and specifically through her: Hannah Preston,” Remmus said, his voice low. “She’s the lynchpin. If we topple her, we topple them from the inside out.”
“That doesn’t solve the problem of their people.”
“No, but their people can’t make a dent in our forces if they don’t have a weapon to aim at us.” His eyes narrowed as he opened technical product documents. “They’re making armor-piercing handgun ammunition.”
Ava stilled. “That’s illegal.”
He nodded. It was a felony to possess handgun ammunition designed to penetrate metal or armor, and another to manufacture, import, or transport it. Remmus quickly filtered through their licensing documentation and found that none of it was above board.
On paper, they produced silver nitrate and liquid sunlight—and nothing else. The fact that the Citizens operation was producing ammunition without a license was only the first in a running list of federal crimes they’d committed.
“This is gold, Ava. We don’t need to plant any evidence: it’s already here. All we need to do is send it to the right people.”
“How hard would it be to spin this and make it look like they’re trafficking to small arms dealers? Level domestic terrorism charges against them?”
Remmus grinned. “I’d need time to gather the evidence and create a case to send, but it’d serve to villainize her, and anyone associated with her. She’d go away for decades.”
He glanced at the framed pictures beside the screen and his eyebrows shot up. Turning around the frame, he said, “She could be your twin, Ava.”
Squinting, she grunted.
Another Raeth psychic signature brushed along the periphery of his in the next moment. Remmus stiffened and the computer in front of him went dark, shutting down on his command. “Ava, the other Raeth just returned.”
Her wolf leapt into her eyes. “What do we do?”
“He can’t sense us, but we need to leave. He could be coming here, to the office.”
“Agreed,” Ava paused, then asked, “Can you find out anything else about him this close?”
Remmus nodded.
Surprisingly, she went silent as the grave, allowing him to delve into the other man’s signature with finesse. The morbid list of traits grew the longer Remmus studied him.
The Raeth’s psychic signature was potent, and magic seemed to seep from him in the same way Nina’s did. While he was telepathically strong, his transfiguration gift was weak. His abilities with teleportation were unclear. Again, the born of destruction traits were present, along with the fact that he was clanless and wholly aligned with whomever in the Citizens facility he was speaking with.
None of what Remmus had discovered put him at ease.
Undetected, he receded from his psychic inspection, shrugging off the warped psyche of the other man like he would a soiled cloak.
“I’ve got it,” he confirmed. “We need to leave.”
“Fine, but put us back outside in the snow. I’m going to run the perimeter. See if I can pick up any other scents.”
While he wanted to argue, now wasn’t the time. He silently rose from the desk chair and sifted his fingers through hers. A moment later, they were in the cold fresh air.
“Blondie, I don’t think running the perimeter is a good idea.” Frowning, Remmus shook his head. “You hardly blend in with the scenery and my ‘look away’ request doesn’t mean you’re invisible.”
She gave him a look. “Wasn’t asking for your permission, Raeth. Besides, I do blend in.”
Chapter Seven
